CSUCI, Coastkeeper pool resources to study water
Jean Cowden Moore
Ventura County Star
07/06/2010
CSU Channel Islands and a local environmental group have formed a partnership to give college students hands-on experience in monitoring water quality.
The partnership also provides Ventura Coastkeeper with lab space on the Camarillo campus, along with additional volunteers.
“Being on campus means Coastkeeper can do more, and our students will have more opportunities to learn new techniques,” said Sean Anderson, an associate professor of environmental science and resource management at CSUCI.
One of those students is Mike Smith, a senior at CSUCI who did a project on water quality in the Oxnard area.
“You can only learn so much in a classroom,” said Smith, who hopes to find a job in water quality when he graduates this winter. “When you go out and do it, you learn 10 times more than you would in a classroom.”
Under the agreement, Ventura Coastkeeper will use labs that CSUCI recently acquired from CSU Los Angeles, with volunteers testing water samples on weekends. The university also will be able to use equipment that Coastkeeper is providing, said Don Rodriguez, chairman of the environmental science program at CSUCI.
“We’re using some of their equipment; they’re using some of ours,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a great arrangement.”
Ventura Coastkeeper monitors and protects water quality in Ventura County. It is part of the Wishtoyo Foundation, which works to preserve Chumash culture as well as the environment.
